On June 13, 2025, Italy adopted, for the first time, a comprehensive law on space activities. Since then, the sector has generated news almost every week: the IRIDE constellation entered operational phase on July 1, 2026, Ariane 6 flew for the first time in the four-booster configuration carrying Amazon Kuiper satellites into orbit, Rocket Lab postponed the debut of the Neutron rocket to the fourth quarter of the year. Space Observatory, the new vertical channel of MC Project Lab, was created to tie these threads together with verifiable data, not headlines.
In brief
- Constellations: IRIDE, Starlink, Copernicus, Galileo, with real technical data (orbital altitudes, precision, number of satellites).
- Updated daily: upcoming orbital launches via Launch Library 2, news from ESA, ASI, and SpaceNews.
- Live tools: zoomable satellite map, Galileo tracker, NOAA aurora borealis forecast, 3D exploration of the solar system.
The IRIDE Case
IRIDE, the Italian Earth observation constellation funded by the PNRR and promoted by the Italian Space Agency, is the first major case study on the site: 68 satellites in operation across 6 sub-constellations, over 70 companies involved, operational phase started on July 1, 2026. Space Observatory maps its technical architecture, the PLATINO and NIMBUS platforms, radar and optical sensors, the role of Telespazio and e-GEOS in the ground segment, and the list of companies involved by category.
A Sector Moving Every Week
The Launchers section follows in parallel Falcon 9, Ariane 6, Vega-C (managed directly by Avio since June), and Rocket Lab's Electron/Neutron. The Space Security section follows orbital surveillance: over 10,000 satellites currently in orbit, the EU SST European partnership protecting more than 600 on behalf of over 400 organizations, the role of Leonardo and Telespazio in debris monitoring.
The Observatory Ecosystem
Three Vertical Channels
Energy Observatory follows energy prices and markets, Robotics Observatory maps robotics and physical AI, Space Observatory covers the space economy.
Space Observatory
The Italian atlas of the space economy: constellations, real-time launches, regulations, industry, and astronauts.